1. Field of the Invention
Our invention relates to vehicle towing apparatus, and more particularly to vehicle towing apparatus of the kind which can be retrofitted to standard pickup trucks and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The term "prior art" as used herein or in any statement made by or on behalf of applicants means only that any document or thing referred to as prior art bears, directly or inferentially, a date which is earlier than the effective filing date hereof.
Vehicle towing apparatus for retrofitting to standard pickup trucks and the like is known in the prior art. For example, such vehicle towing apparatus is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,154,205, issued to Luke D. Gillem on Oct. 27, 1964; and in U.S. Pat. No. 3,779,407, issued to Luke B. Gillem on Dec. 18, 1973.
Such prior art towing apparata, however, are very heavy and of unitary construction, because of which characteristics they are expensive to ship to the purchaser and difficult to fit to a towing vehicle, requiring the services of a lift truck. Further, these prior art vehicle towing apparata are characterized by a relatively great distance between the towing vehicle and the vehicle being towed, which results in poor and even sometimes dangerous handling characteristics for the towing vehicle. Additionally, attempts to negotiate tight corners while towing with these prior art towing apparata have resulted in contact between the outer edges of the towed and towing vehicles, resulting in damage to one or both of them.
It is believed that the following documents contain information which is or might be considered to be material to the examination of this patent application: U.S. Pat. No. 3,897,879; U.S. Pat. No. 3,924,763.
No representation or admission is made that any of the above-cited documents is part of the prior art, or that a search has been made, or that no more pertinent information exists.